8th Grade Position Paper: Research and Argument

Emily Acquino

Block Schedule

Day 1: 55 minutes

Day 2: 75 minutes

Day 3: 75 minutes

Day 4: 40 minutes

*Each class meets for 55 minutes on Monday and 40 minutes on Friday. Tuesday,

Wednesday, and Thursday are block schedules. Students have two 75-minute blocks

a week, with one day of not meeting. The first period of the day has 4-5 minutes

extra for all-school announcements.

Bend I: Writing a Position Paper: Games Based on Fictional Violence—Diverting or

Harmful?

Week 1

Day 1 (55 minutes)

Pre-assessment, On-Demand Argument Writing p. viii

Assignment is briefly introduced on the Friday before Day 1

“Think of a topic or issue that you know and care about, an issue around which you

have strong feelings. Tomorrow, you will have forty-five minutes to write and

opinion or argument text in which you will write your opinion or claim and tell

reasons why you feel that way. When you do this, draw on everything you know

about essays, persuasive letters, and reviews. If you want to bring and use

information from a book or another outside source, you may bring that with you on

Monday. Please keep in mind that you’ll have forty-five minutes to complete this, so

you will need to plan, draft, revise, and edit in one sitting.”

Remind students that today they have an on-demand write about arguments.

Ask students to jot down the topic they are writing about in their notebooks,

then turn and talk to share their topics (4 minutes)

Model the on-demand writing with an example (6 minutes)

o Write an introduction

o State your opinion or claim

o Give reasons and evidence

o Organize your writing

o Acknowledge counterclaims

o Use transition phrases

o Write a conclusion

Students write (45 minutes)

o Pre-writing (8 minutes)

o Introduction and Claim (8 minutes)

o Evidence- 3 pieces (21 minutes, 7 minutes per evidence/reasoning)

o Conclusion and Editing (8 minutes)

Day 2 (75 minutes)

Gateway Activity

Debating Positions to Develop a Complex Argument p. 2-13

Introduce topic of simulated violence, set tone of seriousness (5 minutes)

Introduce pro-con activity (3 minutes)

o Teens SHOULD be allowed to play violent role-playing games.

o Teens should NOT be allowed to play violent role-playing games

Read “High-Jinks: Shoot Out” aloud as students take notes, finding evidence

to support their position (10 minutes)

o http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/22/shoot-out-3

Partner debates (4 minutes)

Debate Continued, more sophisticate arguments- define terms (5 minutes)

o Role-playing games with simulated violence are perilous for kids.

o Role-playing games with simulated violence are diverting for kids.

Students read and annotate “High-Jinks: Shoot Out” independently, try on

different “lenses” (10 minutes)

Debate Continued, arguing the opposite side (10 minutes)

Box and Bullet positions and claims, teacher circulates making sure each

student has a strong claim (20 minutes)

Share student exemplars (10 minutes)

Day 3 (75 minutes)

Flash-Drafting Arguments while Working on Specific Goals p. 14-26

Connect—story about arguments, examples of strong claims- ok, better, and

best (5 minutes)

Share box and bullets plan from yesterday with a partner, emphasis on

strong claims (3 minutes)

Writing Goals (10 minutes)

o Look at “Argument Writing Checklist, ” students choose two goals that

they will work on during flash drafts

o Look at Anchor Chart, connect anchor chart to writing checklist

o Students jot down 2 goals for writing

Flash Draft (25 minutes)

Look at student samples as mentor texts (10 minutes)

o Connect Anchor Chart to mentor texts: What is argument moves does

the writer make?

Continue Flash Draft, try on mentor text strategies (20 minutes)

Day 4 (40 minutes)

Angling Evidence to Support Specific Points p. 27- 42

“Today I want to teach you that writers angle their evidence to convince their

readers that their argument is valid. Writers don’t just plop down facts, quotes, and

statistics, expecting their evidence to speak for itself. Instead, writers explain how

the evidence is significant, showing how that evidence illustrates each point.”

Students share how they used mentor texts to strengthen flash draft (4

minutes)

Teacher introduces and models angling evidence using “High-Jinks: Shoot

Out” (10 minutes)

Students practice angling evidence with specific quote (5 minutes)

Students angle evidence independently- need 3 strong entries (20 minutes)

Week 2

Day 1 (55 minutes)

Angling Evidence Continued

Model angling evidence with citations and ellipses (5 minutes)

Students practice “angling evidence” using two new articles, should have 5

entries by the end of class, teacher periodically shares out student work (40

minutes)

Day 2 (75 minutes)

Angling Evidence for Body Paragraphs

Students share their best “anglings,” choose top three (8 minutes)

Lesson on framing and adapting quotes (10 minutes)

o Set up the source, explain context

o Use brackets and ellipses

o Use specific verbs to describe the implicitness or explicitness of your

evidence, e.g. suggests, indicates, reveals, argues, illustrates…

Students practice framing their first quote (10 minutes)

Students choose their strongest angled evidence and incorporate it into their

essay as body paragraphs TIED (35 minutes)

Share student exemplars (5 minutes)

Day 3 (75 minutes)

Using Connotative Language to Paint a Tone p. 43-53

Share introductions with group, offer advice for strengthening using

language from checklist or anchor chart (10 minutes)

Mini-Lesson on tone (10 minutes)

o Use verbs and adjectives to change the tone of a passage

o Teacher example-- judgmental tone

o Then students try it out—admiring tone

Students insert verbs and adjectives into their essay to create a specific tone-

8 minutes for introduction, 5 minutes for each body paragraph, 1 minute

shares with partners in between (30 minutes)

Synonym mini-lesson (20 minutes)

o Teacher shows optical illusion to demonstrate how tone angles an

argument according to the author’s perspective (p. 52)

o Teacher give example of synonyms with different connotations,

models with “Tough”

o Students work in pairs to create synonym posters

o Students share work with the class

Students choose three words from synonym posters that they will

incorporate into their writing (5 minutes)

Day 4 (40 minutes)

Writing Powerful Conclusions p. 54- 64

“Often, it is the conclusion that brings the audience to their knees, opens their

hearts, and changes their minds.”

Share powerful conclusions chart (5 minutes)

Critique example of a conclusion from an older student (10 minutes)

o Create t-chart, what’s working well, what tips can you offer

Analyze your own conclusion with a partner and make a plan for elevating

your conclusion using the anchor chart (10 minutes)

Revise conclusion independently (15 minutes)

Week 3

Day 1 (55 minutes)

Getting Ready to Publish: Polishing Presentation and Attending to

Conventions p. 65-69

Go over checklist for conventions (5 minutes)

Students type up their essays (50 minutes)

Day 2 (75 minutes)

Getting Ready to Publish: Polishing Presentation and Attending to

Conventions

Students swap essays and edit each other’s work (10 minutes)

Students make changes based on edits (10 minutes)

Practice reading essay aloud in small groups (15 minutes)

Unleashing the Inner Dramatist to Give Speeches More Impact p. 70-80

Watch clips of inspiring speeches and talk about what makes them effective

(30 minutes)

Students practice reading speeches with added flare, add annotations to cue

themselves (10 minutes)

Day 3 (75 minutes)

A Celebration of Speeches p. 81

Students share their final position paper in front of the class.

o Invite parents, other students?

Day 4 (40 minutes)

Start Bend II? Might use this day if plans take more time than expected

Bend II: Writing a Position Paper on a Complicated Issue: Should Child Soldiers Be

Given Amnesty?

Texts:

Taking the War Out of a Child Soldierhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/nyregion/13soldier.html?_r=0

Overview

http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/upfront/features/

index.asp?article=f042009_Armed

Video Movie Review of Beasts of No Nation:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/16/movies/review-beasts-of-no-nation-a-

brutal-tale-of-child-soldiers-in-africa.html

The Child Soldier on Trial in Guantanamo

https://www.hrw.org/news/2010/10/27/child-soldier-trial-guantanamo

Video of former child soldier, Ishmael Beah https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=ozsOLdgp_y0

Week 4

Day 1 (55 minutes)

Gateway Activity

Tough Questions: Should Child Soldiers Be Given Amnesty?

Activate Prior Learning: Teacher says, “You should be proud of your work

over the past few weeks [writing position papers about whether teenagers

should be allowed to play games with simulated violence]. You are taking

ethical position and considering multiple points of view.”

Mini-Lesson: Teacher continues, “Today the class will be moving on to

consider more complex, emotion-evoking arguments in the world. This is not

easy work, but I know that you are ready for it, and it’s our moral and ethical

responsibility to think about these real-world issues.”

“Today we are going to start studying a real argument that relates to kids and

violence. The argument concerns child soldiers—kids, usually around your

age, who are recruited to fight in armies. This argument involves real

children getting hurt and killed, and killing others, too. The United Nations,

Amnesty International, and the U.S. military are actually debating the issue of

child soldiers right now. This is the argument they are considering: Should

child soldiers be given amnesty? In order to answer this question they need

to consider whether child soldiers should be considered victims or

perpetrators.” (5 minutes)

Show video of former child soldier, Ishmael Beah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozsOLdgp_y0(6 minutes)

Students turn and talk to share thoughts/emotions

Students write long about their emotions and questions about child soldiers

(10 minutes)

Students share their writing in small groups (5 minutes)

Whole class discussion (in circle). Teacher reviews discussion guidelines.

Students are encouraged to use both evidence from the video and any prior

knowledge they bring to the conversation (e.g. In social studies, students

studied the Bill or Rights). (20 minutes)

o Questions

What is a child? Is there a difference between a child and a

teenager?

What are the short-term effects of being exposed to and/or

perpetrating violence?

What are the long-term effects of being exposed to and/or

perpetrating violence?

Exit Ticket: List three emotions you experienced today. Choose your strongest

emotion and explain what you experienced or learned today that made you

feel that way.

Day 2 (75 minutes)

Revisit exit ticket from Day 1 with a pair share.

Mini-lesson: Define child soldier

Read “Voices of child soldiers” and discuss the question: “To what extent do

child soldiers have a choice in joining armed forces?”

Read and annotate “Armed & Underage” with critical questions in mind:

o Why might children be seen as “ideal” soldiers?

o Who is responsible for the existence of child soldiers? (note: there are

multiple answers, try to rank responsibility from most responsible to

least)

o What factors make it difficult for child soldiers to return to society (i.e.

everyday life)?

The teacher takes a vote for which critical question will best help students

determine their preliminary positions on the central question: Should child

soldiers receive amnesty?

The teacher poses the chosen discussion questions and prompts students to a

quick turn-and-talk. Then students discuss the questions as a full class. The

teacher provokes deeper thinking with phrases like “tell us more about that”

or “connect what you just said to what (another student) said earlier.”

I believe child soldiers (should/should not) receive amnesty, because

______________________________________.

Exit Ticket: Based on today’s reading and discussion, what is your

preliminary position on the question of whether child soldiers should or

should not receive amnesty. Include one reason why.

Day 3 (75 minutes)

Connect Prior Learning: The teacher passes back exit tickets from the class

before and highlights the diversity of thinking in the classroom—some

students wrote about the recruitment of child soldiers, while others wrote

about the log-term affect of violence on child soldiers.

Mini-lesson: The teacher models:

o I think child soldiers should receive amnesty (position), because child

soldiers are usually coerced into joining the military against their will

(claim).

o Or, I think child soldiers should not receive amnesty (position),

because the may be too psychologically damaged after their

experiences with war to be safe for the rest of society (claim).

The teacher continues with this claim and models how to select and

organize evidence.

o “… their psyches damaged by all the killings they have witnessed ”

(Armed & Underage, p. 8).

o “We lost ourselves completely in this war. It became the only thing we

knew.” (Ishmael Beah)

The teacher checks to make sure each student has a viable position and claim

before sending them back to seats to work independently to select evidence.

Independent work time: students select and organize evidence from three

previously read texts. Students organize claim (outlined in a box) with bullet

points that show text evidence that supports that claim.

Day 4 (40 minutes)

Week 5

Day 1 (55 minutes)

Debating to Draft more Balanced and Principled Arguments

Show anchor chart: “Tips for Being a Great Debater: Argument Moves that

Pay Off”

Debate

o Caucus

o State your case

o Caucus

o Rebut

o Conclusion

Day 2 (75 minutes)

Grammar Lesson: Transitions (see full lesson plan)

Students turn boxes and bullets into TIED (Topic Sentence, Introduce

Evidence, Evidence, Discussion) paragraphs

Day 3 (75 minutes)

Mini-lesson: Model using transitions to write body paragraphs

Students continue turning boxes and bullets in TIED paragraphs

Day 4 (40 minutes)

Mini-lesson on Introductions (largely review)

Students write introductions

Week 6

Day 1 (55 minutes)

Attending to Alternative Arguments and Points of View

Mini-lesson counterargument highlighting transitions, e.g. “some may

argue…”

Students “tuck in” counterargument as part of a TIEDED (Topic Sentence,

Introduce Evidence, Evidence, Discussion, Evidence for Counterclaim,

Discussion)

Day 2 (75 minutes)

Attending to Alternative Arguments and Points of View Part II

Revisit counterarguments from the day before using student exemplars

Students continue working on incorporating counterargument

Day 3 (75 minutes)

Mini-lesson on conclusions

Continue drafting final essays

Optional small group for students interested in turning essay into a letter

they will actually send.

Day 4 (40 minutes)

Day for revisions, catch up, sharing.